COLEEN SALLEY (1946-2008) was a renowned storyteller, a distinguished professor of children's literature, and the author of a number of beloved picture books. The classic Southern story of Epaminondas was her longtime trademark tale at storytelling performances nationwide. She adapted this story into the acclaimed picture book Epossumondas, followed by Why Epossumondas Has No Hair on His Tail, Epossumondas Saves the Day, and Epossumondas Plays Possum, all illustrated by Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Janet Stevens. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Coleen Salley lived for many years in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Janet Stevens is the author and illustrator of many beloved picture books, including Tops & Bottoms, a Caldecott Honor Book. With her sister and co-author, Susan Stevens Crummel, she created the acclaimed best-sellers The Great Fuzz Frenzy, Help Me, Mr. Mutt!, The Little Red Pen and more. She is also the illustrator of the Epossumondas books, written by renowned storyteller Coleen Salley. Janet Stevens lives in Colorado. For more information, visit www.janetstevens.com.

Unrated Critic Reviews for Epossumondas Plays Possum

Kirkus Reviews

His encounters with Alligator, Raccoon, Nutria, and Armadillo will have kids giggling out loud as they foresee what comes next, especially with Mama’s final caution: “Be careful about stepping on those pies.” In “A Storyteller’s Note,” Salley (a professional storyteller) cites the origin and rewo...

Kirkus Reviews

Stevens’s bright and whimsical illustrations, full of detail, feature a necktie-wearing bear (bee-pattern, of course), a rabbit in a carrot-festooned shirt, and the return of Epossumondas in his diaper, sitting on Salley’s lap as she tells this tale about tails.

Kirkus Reviews

Each time he hears a scary snarl, hiss or snort, he plays possum and the swamp critters leave him alone because they “don’t eat no dead meat.” When the swamp buzzard snatches him up, though, Epossumondas squirms, and the bird promptly drops him saying, “I never, ever eat no live meat.” When Mama ...

Publishers Weekly

In the late Salley's last picture book, the fourth to feature Epossumondas and his Mama, Mama warns the possum to steer clear of the swamp because the dreaded “loup-garou snatches [possums] right up with its big ugly claws!” But Epossumondas follows a butterfly into the eerie swamplands, where a ...